A long time ago, before I joined BYC, I was a small hobbyist like many chicken fanciers out there. My dream was to breed the ultimate splash silkie... those adorable fluffy silkies with afro heads and fluffy feet. Now I have over 10 of these bantams and I'm not stopping there. Here's how I started out: building a nice, safe coop in my backyard I started surfing the web to find some silkies for sale. I finally found a small hobbyist like me who happened to have some. I came home with 4 hens and a lovely rooster. After that... things got a bit crazy... locals came from everywhere to buy chicks and eggs. These silkies were a success! I put ads up around town, on the web, and told my chicken friends about it too. Soon everyone new about them. But even so, there are still many other chicken breeders wanting to steal your show. And that's not a bad thing. Sometimes you can swap birds, trade chicks, or get new eggs. Especially if that breeder is a nearby hobbyist like you might be. I still haven't found a name for my little hobbyist bussiness... maybe silky silkies. I know this is a bit too random/common but have you guys got any ideas?
This year has been my first show-season, I visited the whangarei poultry show a few weeks back. Now I'm determined to enter for next year's show! It's all a bit hard... the genetics and everything. But I got the hang of it after a while... There's always more birds needing homes!
But even now, I've still not reached my dream: a splash silkie. This is a future goal to reach... but also a problem. Splash silkies can't be found everywhere, and rarely here in northland NZ. First you have to find a decent blue silkie couple. Then there's a choice of incubating or hatching eggs under a broody hen. This has always been dificult. I like to hatch my chicks naturaly, under a hen. But not all hens are willing to become mothers!
Most of all - you'll want to keep your business clean. Having a nice coop is the best when buyers come to view your chickens. But there's also the web page. You want to make sure you write down as much detail as possible about every chicken for sale. What is this chickens traits? What strain does it come from? Pure blue or are there some gold genes hiding in there? Etc.
Please leave any ideas about a business name you might have in the comments
This year has been my first show-season, I visited the whangarei poultry show a few weeks back. Now I'm determined to enter for next year's show! It's all a bit hard... the genetics and everything. But I got the hang of it after a while... There's always more birds needing homes!
But even now, I've still not reached my dream: a splash silkie. This is a future goal to reach... but also a problem. Splash silkies can't be found everywhere, and rarely here in northland NZ. First you have to find a decent blue silkie couple. Then there's a choice of incubating or hatching eggs under a broody hen. This has always been dificult. I like to hatch my chicks naturaly, under a hen. But not all hens are willing to become mothers!
Most of all - you'll want to keep your business clean. Having a nice coop is the best when buyers come to view your chickens. But there's also the web page. You want to make sure you write down as much detail as possible about every chicken for sale. What is this chickens traits? What strain does it come from? Pure blue or are there some gold genes hiding in there? Etc.
Please leave any ideas about a business name you might have in the comments
